Jim Ross Blogs – Tonight’s RAW, Lee Marshall, Podcast

On the death of the territories and developing talent: The erosion of the wrestling territories and the aftermath of their disappearance is starting to rear its ugly head within the business as it relates to the next generation of wrestling stars. Where will the stars of 3, 5, or 10 years and beyond come from for any company producing pro wrestling? The NFL has college football, the NBA has college hoops, MLB has a minor league system dotted with great high school and college players, and the NHL has an organized feeder system to make sure that the continue to add new, talented YOUNG athletes to their mix annually but the business of sports entertainment/pro wrestling has what? The biz has nothing that even closely resembles the in depth level that the other aforementioned entities have notwithstanding what show business has as it looks for talented young actors, etc on a daily basis. While many love to second guess today’s pro wrestling creative, often times rightfully so, my biggest concern about the continued growth and overall health of the business lies within where are tomorrow’s stars coming? Finding the stars of tomorrow is the wrestling biz’s greatest concern. WWE, for example, actively recruiting the amateur wrestling scene is a Godsend but for one to think that will be enough over the long haul and for the generations to come is being highly naive.

Updates on his podcast: Big Ross Report Podcast week…..our Gail Kim interview drops Tuesday PM USA time and it’s a great one. Gail is so smart and aware of the business and has some very pointed and intelligent things to say. I have great respect for @gailkimItsMe. I will also be working on the blockbuster Shawn Michaels podcast that has so much info in it that it will be a two parter beginning next week. Shawn’s take on Undertaker’s Streak ending is fascinating as are his thoughts on CM Punk leaving WWE as many remember that HBK left WWE for approximately four years at one point in his amazing career. These are just two of the many topics we discussed in depth with, arguably, the best to ever perform for a living inside the 20 foot squared circle. Tuesday night I will be speaking with Bill Goldberg for a future Ross Report and if you have questions please Tweet them to me @JRsBBQ and use the hash tag #AskJR. We have some fascinating guests booked well into July for our podcast. For those that continue to ask me about booking WWE talents, I am certainly willing but WWE has to approve such bookings and they are going to get back to me soon with their decision. Ross Report Podcasts are FREE to download via pocdastone.com and via iTunes and at this time we have no plans to expand to multiple podcasts a week but that could change in the future. Thanks for everyone’s support of our efforts.

On Tonight’s WWE RAW broadcast: RAW should be interesting tonight. I can’t see WWE World Champions Daniel Bryan wrestling after taking THREE, Tombstone piledrivers last Monday from Kane but who knows? One thing that I do know is that St. Louis is a terrific wrestling city and the night that we had all the NWA Champions back as our guests there was SO special. St. Louis was also the city that we were in when we found out that my dear friend Brian Pillman passed away the night before. Mixed memories of St. Louis without question but it’s a great city nonetheless. If it hadn’t been for KMOX radio’s coverage of Cardinal baseball with Harry Caray and Jack Buck I may never have been a broadcaster.

On Lee Marshall’s passing: Condolences to the family, friends and fans of the late, broadcaster Lee Marshall who passed away over the weekend. Lee was a big time radio voice in Los Angeles among other markets before ne ventured into pro wrestling, a former AWA and WCW broadcaster who was brought to Atlanta by Eric Bischoff who I assume Eric met in AWA while working for Verne Gagne. Lee was also the voice of Tony the Tiger. I never worked with Lee that I recall but mutual friends always spoke highly of him. RIP Lee.